Vol. 10, Special Issue 8 (2025)

Author(s): Nutan Kumari, Gaurav Ugale and Ramesh Pandey

Abstract: The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of various pre-milking treatments viz. T₀ (udder washed with tap water and wiped with a towel as control), T₁ (Udder lubricated prior to hand milking using coconut oil), T₂ (Udder lubricated prior to hand milking using mustard oil), T₃ (Udder wiped with clean duster prior to milking as dry hand milking) Raw milk bacteriological quality of cross-bred cow at SHUATS, dairy farm. The experiment was conducted on 12 randomly selected, apparently healthy crossbred cows, maintained in a tail-to-tail housing system under uniform management conditions at the SHUATS dairy farm. Representative milk samples collected were analyzed to determine SPC in milk. The present experiment was concluded with inference that the T₃ (dry hand milking) is the b zest pre- hand milking treatment to obtain lower bacterial count in milk followed by T₂ (use of mustard oil), T₁ (coconut oil) and T₀ (tap water). Use of pre-hand milking with dry hand milking was the best treatment to obtain lowest total bacterial count (SPCx10³) per ml raw milk. Therefore, use of dry hand milking and application of mustard oil to the udder prior to milking can be suggested to dairy farmers as a practice for obtaining milk with a lower total bacterial count.